1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cutter for cutting continuous paper with one portion thereof uncut and a thermal printer having the above cutter.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a paper cuter for cutting a roll of continuous paper having been printed on with one portion left uncut. Such devices have been installed in, for example, an order input device and the like for printing out menu items ordered by a customer in a fast food restaurant, a family restaurant, and the like. Hereafter, this type of cut is referred to as a partial cut.
The partial cut is used for various purposes, such as for preventing full cut paper from falling down into the device from the outlet, or for aligning several sheets of paper with the contents of orders printed in a sequence of orders while being connected by one portion, by supplying the paper without tearing off the uncut portion according to the partial cut when receiving the orders sequentially, and the like.
Generally, the paper appearing from the outlet after a partial cut is divided into individual sheets by a user's pulling the paper and tearing off the uncut portion. In case of a partial cut in which an uncut portion of the paper is left on the right side, when a user pulls the paper, holding the left side of the paper, the cut portion of the paper is opened and a force concentrates on the root, thereby making it easy to tear off the uncut portion.
However, when a user pulls the paper straight while holding the side of the uncut portion of the paper, even if the width of the uncut portion is small, a force is dispersed in this portion, and therefore, in some cases, the uncut portion cannot be torn off easily even if a user pulls on it forcefully. When this occurs, there is also a possibility of reeling out the connected paper from the device. When the paper is reeled out, various problems may occur, including an increase the space on the top of the paper at the next print-out operation and the possibility that the paper will be skewed swayed at a forwarding time.
Generally, a thermal printer clamps paper between a printing head and a platen for printing, and these components are provided in a prior stage of the cutter for performing the partial cut, such that the paper is being held by the pressure of the printing head and the platen while being cut. When the paper is pulled in a state of being uncut with a force stronger than this clamping force, the paper will be reeled out. Recently, however, there has been a tendency for the pressure between the printing head and the platen to become lower, and therefore, the problem of reeling out the paper by pulling the partial cut paper has become more serious.